A Podcasting Blog from
Podcasting Tools - Daily Podcasting News and Information for
Podcasters and Listeners.

Daily Podcasting Blog and news related to podcasting, RSS,
podcast news and aggregation. Information related to podcasts are
added on a daily business and cover the gamut, from new podcast
product announcements, podcast directories, marketing for podcasters
and much, much more.

12/28/2005 Podcasts: A guy thing?Chances are, if you've recorded a podcast in the last year,
the people listening in were men.

A survey in December by Podtrac, a company that aims to connect
podcasters and advertisers, showed that 78 percent of those
who have ever listened to a podcast are male. That pattern is
in keeping with early adoption of a wide array of technologies,
from PCs to video games.

12/28/2005 PodcasterCon Jan 7, 2006PodcasterCon 2006 is a free one day conference open to all
participants to discuss and learn about podcasting. This not
for profit event is being organized by a group of volunteers
from around the world. PodcasterCon is an Open Event.

The event will not have traditional speakers, commercial product
pitches, or bags full of conference swag. The event will have
free food and drink, pre-organized sessions, and will be conducted
in an unconference style.

The unconference will be held at the University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, NC, 116 Murphey Hall from 9AM to 6PM.

12/23/2005 Scottish PodcastsThe clan website at http://www.scottishpodcasts.com/ will be a
focus for Scottish podcasting and a single destination for anyone
wishing to discover the best Scotland has to offer in this new
medium. Podcasting is a term used to describe the automatic
distribution of audio and video programs over the internet.
Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published,
syndicated "radio shows" and gives broadcast media a new distribution
method

12/20/2005 New Podcast DirectoryThe Pod Lounge
is a new podcast directory, they invite users to submit podcasts.
All podcasts are manually approved for inclusion.

The tongue-in-cheek podcast, titled, "Motel 6 Top Reasons to
Stay at a Motel during the Holidays," is available for download
on Accor North America's Web site. Accor North
America is one of the first major hotel companies to reach out
to consumers through this new medium.

12/19/2005 Police Find New Way to Reach OutThe Franklin Police Department has joined the podcast
revolution, becoming one of the first departments in the nation
to use the hot new Internet technology to reach out to citizens.''When you're dealing with tight budgets, it's on us to make
sure people understand that we do more than driving around and
occasionally turning on our lights," said Patrolman Brian Johnson.The podcast, called ''Franklin's Finest," is ''a little blast
to people to say, 'Hey, I think you should know about the other
things' " that police do, said Johnson, a self-taught techie
who manages the department's website.

The caucus announced Thursday that new technology on its Web
site allows the public to subscribe to audio podcasts of legislative
commentary and bill proposals - assuming, of course, that people
would rather listen to Sen. Joseph Zarelli of Ridgefield talk
about the budget than rapper Kanye West rail against gold diggers.

12/16/2005 A Little Close for ComfortPlay Underwear
has introduced the iBoxer - iPod-ready underwear. The Play iBoxer
is a cotton/spandex blend button fly boxer, with a discrete
front pocket which is perfect for holding an iPod, other mp3
players or your cell phone. Answering the call may take on a
new meaning.

The Boxer is available in solid colors and the solid waistband
features a racing stripe and the Play logos.

12/12/2005 iTunes has New FeaturesApple has added two new podcast features to iTunes. First,
it has extended its new customer reviews feature to podcasts.
Second, it now lists the top 100 podcasts by category. This
includes the top business podcasts (iTunes link), technology
podcasts and more.

12/19/2005 Snowboarding Jacket Integrates iPodThe Audex Jacket Series combines the technology from Motorola
and Burton Snowbards, to include support for Bluetooth and Apple
iPods.

The Audex jacket line is a combination of Bluetooth Wireless
technology from Motorola and Burton snowboarding gear, resulting
in outerwear that acts as the control center for handsfree communication
and entertainment while on the slopes or anywhere else.

"Music and technology are a huge part of the snowboard culture,"
says Bryan Johnston, Burton's VP of Global Marketing. "The Audex
line makes it easier than ever to listen to music and pick up
calls whether you're riding up the lift or grabbing a taxi downtown."

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12/06/2005 Disney's ESPN into PodcastingWalt Disney Co.'s ESPN cable sports network is looking into
distributing some of its television programs on Apple's iTunes
music and video service, possibly joining its corporate cousin
in a landmark deal, ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer
said on Monday.

12/06/2005 Podcast Is the Word of the YearOnly a year ago, podcasting was an arcane activity, the
domain of a few techies and self-admitted "geeks." Now you can
hear everything from NASCAR coverage to NPR's All Things Considered
in downloadable audio files called "podcasts". Thousands of
podcasts are available at the iTunes Music Store, and websites
such as iPodder.com and Podcast.net track thousands more. That's
why the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have selected
"podcast" as the Word of the Year for 2005. Podcast, defined
as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program,
made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal
audio player," will be added to the next online update of the
New Oxford American Dictionary, due in early 2006.

Juice is a free open-source program, released under the GPL
license. It works as a "media aggregator," in that it's able
to collect and download audio files from a great deal of sources,
such as radio, podcast directories and audio weblogs, by using
the so called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to "feed" audio
files to users' computers.

12/06/2005 AOL Podcasting SearchAmerica Online is at work on a search engine that, in
theory, would let someone seek out and listen to snippets of
podcasts that contain a particular word or phrase they are searching
for. Nearly all of the major search engines' podcasting services
rely on "show notes," which is a written description of the
program by its producers. It's an extremely rare service that
lets you search the podcast's actual contents. But the average show note is little more than 13 words long,
according to a recent study by San Francisco-based Blinkx, a
Yahoo competitor that specializes in audio and video search.
So few words can't possibly do justice in describing all
aspects of a Podcast, which on average is about 20 minutes long,
critics said. Just how improved the service is remains to be seen when
AOL's service is launched.

The do-gooder group founded by U2 singer Bono is looking to
take its anti-poverty message to trendsetters through a series
of podcasts launched Thursday to commemorate World AIDS day.

Thursday’s podcast by the group ONE: The Campaign To Make
Poverty History will feature speeches by Bono, former South
African President Nelson Mandela, and Coldplay front man Chris
Martin. Bono’s group said it would offer new podcasts centered
around AIDS, hunger in Africa, and other social issues on a
monthly basis.

12/05/2005 Alleged Podcasting ExtortionExtortionists now have a new type of victim to pick on:
podcasters. U.S. podcaster Eric Marcus has fallen prey to a
hijacker who has diverted his really simple syndication (RSS)
feed and is allegedly demanding money to release it. Marcus,
who runs the Vegan.com site and produces the Erik's Diner podcasts,
is looking for legal redress.

A podcast is audio content that is distributed to listeners
over the Internet through an RSS feed. According to press reports,
Marcus discovered that downloads of his podcast had suddenly
diminished after he had gradually won an audience of 1,500 regular
listeners.

Marcus found that Yahoo has an RSS listing for his podcast
on its podcasts.yahoo.com directory, but that the listing directs
potential visitors to podkeyword.com rather than to vegan.com.
He also discovered that Apple's iTunes online music store associates
the podkeyword.com Web address with the Erik's Diner podcast.

Marcus asked podkeyword.com to make a listing change. But
the site allegedly replied that it would only do so if Marcus
made a payment or permanently agreed to its terms, according
to press reports.

12/03/2005 Japanese Panel Rejects iPod TaxJapan appears likely to scrap proposed fees on portable
digital music players - a plan known here as the iPod tax -
after a crucial government committee refused Thursday to support
the measure.

The Japanese recording industry had sought the fees, which would
add between 2 percent and 5 percent to the retail price of portable
players since the explosive success of Apple's iPod sales, which
began here about two years ago. The industry says it needs the
fees as compensation for lost sales from home copying.